Stacked-Plate Heat Exchanger Including A Collector

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a heat exchanger ( 10 ) including a bundle ( 12 ), for enabling the exchange of heat between a first and second fluid, and a housing ( 11 ) in which said bundle is arranged, said housing ( 11 ) including a first and second opening ( 14, 15 ) through which the first fluid is to pass and which are in communication with said bundle. According to the invention, said exchanger ( 10 ) includes a collector ( 30 ) located on said housing ( 11 ), said collector ( 30 ) defining a first fluidic connection ( 31 ) with the first opening ( 14 ) and a second fluidic connection ( 32 ) with the second opening ( 15 ). The invention also relates to an air intake module ( 1 ) for the heat engine of a vehicle, in particular a motor vehicle, including the above-described exchanger ( 10 ).

The present invention relates to a stacked-plate heat exchanger. The invention applies to all types of heat exchanger, particularly for motor vehicles, such as for example exchangers for mounting in the engine compartment of the vehicle such as charge air coolers (CAC) or exhaust gas recirculation coolers (EGRC).

Heat exchangers are known in this field that include a plurality of stacked plates forming surfaces for the exchange of heat between two fluids referred to as the first and second fluids. These first and second fluids circulate between the plates, in alternating layers, in fluid flow circuits. Inserts can be provided to improve heat exchange between these two fluids. The stack of plates is thus configured in such a way as to define two different circuits, the circuit for the first fluid, such as a cooling liquid, and the circuit for the second fluid, such as a gas to be cooled.

In these exchangers, the plates are provided with stamped pockets pierced perpendicular to the plane of the plate for the first fluid to flow from one first-fluid circulation layer to another, without communicating with the second-fluid circulation layer located between the two.

The first fluid enters and leaves the exchanger by means of inlet/outlet pipes. Due to the configuration of the plates, these first fluid inlet/outlet pipes are located facing the pierced stamped pockets of the plates. Furthermore, the pipes are positioned perpendicular to the plates and their position is therefore limited to offering interface zones located on the two sides of the exchanger parallel to the plates, i.e. the top and/or bottom sides of the exchanger in line with the collectors formed by the stacking of the stamped pockets. One drawback is that this limits the different configurations possible for connecting the exchanger.

Due to the market trend towards a reduction in the space available for heat exchangers and the components thereof, the environments into which they must be incorporated are increasingly complex. It is therefore important to develop compact exchangers that offer a large degree of freedom of adaptation in the positioning of the first fluid inlet and outlet pipes, so that the assembly can be incorporated efficiently into the space available.

The invention aims to improve this situation.

To this end, it proposes a heat exchanger, including a bundle for enabling the exchange of heat between a first and a second fluid and a housing in which said bundle is arranged, said housing including a first and a second first-fluid flow orifice communicating with said bundle, characterised in that said exchanger includes a collector located on said housing, said collector defining a first fluidic connection with the first orifice and a second fluidic connection with the second orifice.

As a result of the invention, it is thus possible to freely arrange couplings connecting the exchanger to a circulation loop of the first fluid. As the location of said couplings is known, the fluidic connections need simply be configured so that they connect said flow orifices and said couplings. Thus, the exchanger of the invention offers a significant degree of adaptation to the environment in which it is to be installed, as the collector and its fluidic connections make it possible to choose the zone of the exchanger that will form the interface with the first-fluid circulation loop. The first and second orifices particularly enable the first fluid to enter and leave the bundle.

According to one aspect of the invention, at least one of the fluidic connections includes a first-fluid circulation channel. The first fluid is thus capable of running along this channel on entering and/or leaving the exchanger.

According to one embodiment of the invention, said collector includes a plate having at least one stamped zone, said channel being defined by said stamped zone and a portion of the housing located facing said stamped zone. Said portion of the housing located facing said stamped zone particularly includes the first and/or second orifice.

In a particular form of the invention, said collector includes a first opening and a second opening, said channel defining a first elbow between the first opening and the first orifice and/or between the second opening and the second orifice. The first elbow is defined along a plane parallel to a face of the housing on which the collector is located. It makes it possible to orient the fluidic connection from the first orifice and/or the second orifice to the place on the housing where the exchanger is to be connected to the first-fluid circulation loop.

Advantageously, the first opening is located in the stamped zone at one end of the channel, located facing the housing, and the second opening is located on a flat face of the plate and facing the second orifice. In this case, the collector defines a single channel, namely the channel of the first fluidic connection.

According to one aspect of the invention, the collector includes a first coupling connected to the first opening and a second coupling connected to the second opening. By adapting the position of the fluidic connections, it is thus possible to arrange the first coupling and the second coupling in the most appropriate places on the exchanger for the integration thereof with the rest of the circuit in the vehicle. Advantageously, the first coupling is a flange or a pipe and the second coupling is a flange or a pipe.

According to one embodiment of the invention, at least one of the couplings includes a second elbow arranged to make a flow area of the first fluid in the coupling progressive between a mouth of the coupling to be connected to a first-fluid circulation loop and the corresponding opening. The progressive change in the cross-section of the second coupling reduces the pressure loss undergone by the first fluid when it enters and/or leaves the exchanger.

In a particular form of the invention, the channel is arranged to make a flow area of the first fluid progressive between the first opening and the first orifice and/or between the second opening and the second orifice. The progressive change in the cross-section of the channel allows the pressure loss undergone by the first fluid when it enters and/or leaves the exchanger to be reduced.

According to one aspect of the invention, the collector has approximately the same dimensions as a face of the housing on which it is located. The thickness of the face of the housing on which the collector is located can thus be reduced, with the exchanger retaining satisfactory mechanical strength due to the collector.

Advantageously, the collector includes mechanical strengthening ribs. The collector thus increases the mechanical strength of the housing and therefore the exchanger in order to better withstand the various stresses to which the exchanger is subjected.

According to one embodiment, the first orifice, the second orifice and the collector are on the same face of the housing.

In a particular form of the invention, the first and second orifices are located along a first side of the housing, the first and second openings being located along a second side of the housing, adjacent to the first side of the housing.

The invention also relates to an air intake module for a heat engine of a vehicle, particularly a motor vehicle, including an exchanger as described above.

Further features, details and advantages of the invention will become apparent on reading the following description, given by way of example and with reference to drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an air intake module for a vehicle heat engine including an exchanger according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a heat exchange bundle included in the exchanger;

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of an exchanger housing and a collector according to the invention;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the housing and the collector in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the housing and shows a variant of the collector.

FIG. 1 shows an air intake module 1 for a heat engine of a vehicle, particularly a motor vehicle, according to the invention. Such an air intake module 1 is located, in particular, on the engine cylinder head, opposite the air intake pipes into the engine.

This air intake module 1 includes a heat exchanger 10 according to the invention. The role of the exchanger 10 is in particular to enable the exchange of heat between a first fluid, for example water or glycol water, and a second fluid, particularly air or a mixture of air and exhaust gases referred to as EGR gases, in order to cool the second fluid. The exchanger 10 is mounted on an engine coupling interface 2 making it possible to distribute the second fluid to the engine and capable of being fixed to the engine. The exchanger 10 is substantially parallelepipedal. It includes a housing 11, which can be seen more clearly in FIG. 3, and a bundle 12 shown in FIG. 2, located in the housing 11, for enabling the exchange of heat between the first fluid and the second fluid.

The air intake module 1 includes a double metering valve 3. This double metering valve 3 is mounted on the engine coupling interface 2 next to the exchanger 10. It makes it possible to distribute the second fluid either into the exchanger 10 so that it can be cooled, or directly into the engine. To this end, the double metering valve 3 has an inlet 4 for the second fluid, and first outlet 5 connected to a pipe 6 connecting it to a collector box 7 for the second fluid included in the exchanger 10 and a second outlet 8 directly connected to the engine coupling interface 2. The housing 11 includes four faces so that it substantially defines a rectangular parallelepiped. It includes two longitudinal large faces opposite each other and two lateral small faces opposite each other and connecting the two longitudinal large faces to each other. The housing 11 thus leaves free the two remaining faces of the parallelepiped, opposite each other and referred to as the first and second free faces. The second-fluid collector box 7 is connected to the first free face of the housing 11. The housing 11 is connected to the engine coupling interface 2 on its second free face. The second fluid thus passes through the housing 11 from one side to the other from the collector box 7 to the engine coupling interface 2.

Here, the bundle 12 shown in FIG. 2 includes stacked plates 60. The plates 60 are grouped in pairs and each define a circuit 64 for the circulation of the first fluid. As a result, the circuit 64 of a top plate and a bottom plate in a single pair of plates complement each other to form a first-fluid circulation duct.

The plates 60 have, for example, a generally elongated rectangular shape with substantially smaller dimensions than the longitudinal large faces of the housing. The plates 60 thus have two large sides and two small sides, each plate comprising two bosses, referred to as the first and second bosses 67, 68. The first boss 67 has an inlet 69 of the first-fluid circulation circuit 64 and the second boss 68 has an outlet 70 of the first-fluid circulation circuit 64. Circuits 66 for the circulation of the second fluid are provided between two plates 60 facing two adjacent pairs of plates 60.

In order to enable the first fluid to communicate between the different pairs of plates and therefore the different first-fluid circulation circuits 64, here the bosses 67, 68 are pierced with a first-fluid flow orifice 71 and are in contact with the bosses 67, 68 of an adjacent plate 60 to form respectively an inlet collector box (not shown) and an outlet collector box 72 for the first fluid. The inlet collector box opens, for example, into the first housing orifice and the outlet collector box opens, for example, into the second housing orifice. It will be understood here that the first bosses 67 on the plates 60 are located facing the first orifice and the second bosses 68 on the plates 60 are located facing the second orifice.

In other words, the first fluid enters the bundle through the first orifice and is then distributed between the plates 60 in the first-fluid circulation circuits 64 by the inlet collector box. It flows in the first-fluid circulation circuits 64 from the inlets 69 thereof to the outlets 70 thereof, where it enters the outlet collector box 72. It then leaves the bundle 12 through the second housing orifice.

The exchanger 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes, according to the invention, a collector 30 located on the housing 11. Here, the collector 30 is located on one of the longitudinal large faces of the housing 11 referred to as the first lateral large face (provided with reference numeral 13 in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5). The housing 11 includes first and second first-fluid flow orifices 14, 15 communicating with the bundle. Here, these first and second orifices 14, 15 are located on the first lateral large face of the housing and are shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1. The first and second orifices 14, 15 are located in particular along a first side 16 of the housing 11, located on the first longitudinal large face on the side of the double metering valve, i.e. on the side of one of the lateral small faces of the housing 11.

The second orifice 15 is located in particular on a corner between the first side 16 of the housing 11 and a second side 17 of the housing 11. The second side 17 of the housing 11 belongs to the first lateral large face and is capable of receiving a portion of the collector box 7. The first orifice 14 is located in particular on a corner between the first side of the housing 11 and a third side 18 of the housing 11. The third side 18 of the housing 11 belongs to the first lateral large face and is capable of receiving a portion of the engine coupling interface 2. In this case, the first orifice 14 is an orifice for the first fluid to enter the bundle and the second orifice 15 is an orifice for the first fluid to leave the bundle.

According to the invention, the collector 30 defines a first fluidic connection 31 with the first orifice 14 and a second fluidic connection 32 with the second orifice 15.

The collector 30 according to the invention is shown in more detail in FIGS. 3 and 4. At least one of the fluidic connections 31, 32 includes a first-fluid circulation channel 33. In this case, it is the fluidic connection 31 for the first fluid. The channel 33 conveys and/or discharges the first fluid from the bundle.

The collector 30 includes a plate 34 having at least one stamped zone 35. Here, the collector 30 has a single stamped zone 35. The first-fluid circulation channel 33 is defined by this stamped zone 35 and a portion of the housing 11 comprising the first orifice 14 and located facing the stamped zone 35.

The stamped zone 35 includes a bottom 37 extending in a plane substantially parallel to the plane in which the face of the housing 11 receiving the collector 30 extends, here the first longitudinal large face 13. The bottom 37 is surrounded by a peripheral wall 38, substantially perpendicular to the bottom 37 and connecting it to the housing 11 in such a way that the stamped zone 35 forms the channel 33 with the housing. The collector 30 includes a first opening 36, provided in the bottom 37 of the stamped zone 35. Here, it is located at a first end of the channel 33, facing a flat face of the housing 11, i.e. here, facing the first longitudinal large face 13. The first opening 36 is located in particular along the second side 17 of the housing 11, next to the second orifice 15. The first orifice 14 is located at a second end of the channel 33, particularly on the first side 16 of the housing as described above. The channel 33 thus defines a first elbow between the first opening 36 and the first orifice 14 in a plane parallel to the longitudinal large face 13.

The channel 33 is arranged to make a flow area of the first fluid progressive between the first opening 36 and the first orifice 14. It will be understood here that the channel 33 includes, for example, a first-fluid flow area smaller than a first-fluid flow area of the first opening 36 and larger than a first-fluid flow area of the first orifice 14, or vice versa.

In the example shown, the first fluid can thus enter the channel 33 through the first opening 36, before running along the channel 33 and entering the bundle by means of the first orifice 14. According to another embodiment, the fluid could travel in the opposite direction, with entry to the bundle then being through the second orifice 15.

The collector 30 includes a second opening 39 located on a flat face 90 of the plate 34 and facing the second orifice 15. The second fluidic connection is thus direct between the second opening 39 and the second orifice 15.

The collector 30 may also include a first coupling 40 connected to the first opening 36 and a second coupling 41 connected to the second opening 39. In the example shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the first and second couplings 40, 41 are pipes. These couplings 40, 41 enable the first fluid to enter and leave the exchanger. They are thus capable of being connected to a circulation loop for the fluid. Owing to the invention, these couplings are located on the second side of the housing 11. It must be noted that another form of one or both fluidic connections would make it possible to arrange the couplings on another of the sides of the housing 11.

The second coupling 41 includes a second elbow 42 arranged to make a first-fluid flow area in the second coupling 41 progressive between a mouth 43 of the second coupling 41 for connection to the first-fluid circulation loop and the second opening 39. As the mouth 43 particularly has a smaller flow area than the second opening 39, the second elbow 42 is flared from the mouth 43 to the second opening 39.

The collector 30 is fixed to the housing 11 for example by soldering and/or by welding points or rivets 80.

In the examples shown in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, the collector 30 is smaller than the face of the housing 11 on which it is located, i.e. the first longitudinal large face 13. The collector 30 occupies, for example, less than half of the housing face on which it is located, particularly lengthwise.

In the example shown in FIG. 1, the collector 30 is conversely substantially the same size as the first lateral large face so that this face cannot be seen in FIG. 1 as it is behind the collector 30. Here, the collector 30 includes mechanical strengthening ribs 50.

These ribs 50 increase the mechanical stress resistance of the exchanger 10. It is thus possible to reduce the thickness of the first longitudinal large face and that of the collector 30 to approximately 1.5 mm each, while increasing the mechanical strength of the housing 11 and therefore of the exchanger 30.

FIG. 5 shows a variant in which the first and second couplings 40, 41 are flanges referred to as the first and second flanges 44, 45. The first flange 44 includes a first casing 46 connected to the first opening. The second flange 45 includes a second casing 47 connected directly to the first orifice.

These casings 46, 47 are substantially parallelepipedal and include an open face facing the housing 11 in such a way that they form a volume with a portion of the face of the housing 11 on which they are located. On one face 48 of the casings 46, 47, perpendicular to the face of the housing 11 on which they are located and directed towards the second side of the housing 11, are connectors 49 for coupling the collector 30 to the first-fluid circulation loop. Each casing 46, 47 includes a connector 49. These connectors 49 extend perpendicular to the face of the casing 46, 47 on which they are located.

It can also be envisaged that one of the two couplings 40, 41 is a flange and the other a pipe.

The various components of the exchanger are, for example, made from aluminium or an aluminium alloy. They are, in particular, soldered together. 

1. A heat exchanger (10) including: a bundle (12) for enabling an exchange of heat between a first and a second fluid; a housing (11) in which the bundle (12) is arranged, with the housing (11) including a first and a second first-fluid flow orifice communicating with the bundle (12): and, a collector (30) located on the housing (11), with the collector (30) defining a first fluidic connection (31) with the first orifice (14) and a second fluidic connection (32) with the second orifice (15).
 2. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second fluidic connections (31, 32) includes a first-fluid circulation channel (33).
 3. A heat exchanger (10) according claim 2, wherein the collector (30) includes a plate (34) having at least one stamped zone (35) and the channel (33) is defined by the stamped zone (35) and a portion of the housing (11) facing the stamped zone (35).
 4. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 3, wherein the collector (30) includes a first opening (36) and a second opening (39), with the channel (33) defining a first elbow between the first opening (36) and the first orifice (14) and/or between the second opening (39) and the second orifice (15).
 5. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 4, wherein the first opening (36) is located in the stamped zone (35) at one end of the channel (33) and facing the housing (11), and the second opening (39) is located on a flat face (40) of the plate (34) and facing the second orifice (15).
 6. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 4, wherein the collector (30) includes a first coupling (40) connected to the first opening (36) and a second coupling (41) connected to the second opening (39).
 7. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 6, wherein the first coupling (40) is a flange (46) or a pipe and the second coupling (41) is a flange (47) or a pipe.
 8. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 6, wherein at least one of the couplings (41) includes a second elbow (42) defining a flow area of the first fluid in the coupling progressive between a mouth (43) of the coupling (41) to be connected to a first-fluid circulation loop and the corresponding opening (39).
 9. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 4, wherein the channel (33) defines a flow area of the first fluid between the first opening (36) and the first orifice (14) and/or between the second opening (39) and the second orifice (15).
 10. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 1, wherein the collector (30) has a size substantially the same as a size of a face (13) of the housing (11) on which the collector (30) is located.
 11. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 1, wherein the collector (30) includes mechanical strengthening ribs (50).
 12. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 1, wherein the first orifice (14), the second orifice (15) and the collector (30) are on a face (13) of the housing (11).
 13. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 1, wherein the first and second orifices (14, 15) are located along a first side (16) of the housing (11), with the first and second openings (36, 39) being located along a second side (17) of the housing (11) adjacent to the first side (16) of the housing (11).
 14. An air intake module (1) for a heat engine of a vehicle, including a heat exchanger (10) according to claim
 1. 15. A heat exchanger (10) according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the couplings (41) includes a second elbow (42) defining a flow area of the first fluid in the coupling (41) between a mouth (43) of the coupling (41) to be connected to a first-fluid circulation loop and the corresponding opening (39). 